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Iraqi Drama Catches U.S. Off Guard

The Quickly Unfolding Drama Prompted a White House Meeting Wednesday of Top Policy Makers and Military Leaders

Iraqi forces' rout by a ragtag militia this week shocked politicians in Baghdad and Washington, but the troops and their American trainers have been warning for years that the Iraqi military wasn't ready for battle. WSJ's Matt Bradley joins Simon Constable on the News Hub to discuss. Photo: Getty

WASHINGTON—At a closed-door gathering of Gulf states in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in May, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and his Arab counterparts all signaled agreement on one thing for the first time: Islamist forces seizing territory in Syria and Iraq had become a regionwide menace that can't be ignored.

What they didn't agree on was what to do about it, U.S. officials said.The fall this week of the Iraqi cities Mosul and Tikrit to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham rebel group shows how the insurgent threat is...